Decorating

I'd like to blog about something different tonight. I'm looking around my office for inspiration. Oh, I have an idea - decorating. My girls helped me decorate my office by placing gift ribbons and bows on the shelves. They think it's beautiful. When we did their room, they filled their dresser and table tops with little things that they like, including a paper cup I made into a trophy for her when she won a game of Sorry. When will their view of what is "good decorating" conform to what the world deems nice? When will imaginative creativity fall by the wayside to let Pottery Barn take over?

I helped a friend today who broke her arm pick up her house a bit. I was so impressed by all the things she had that were meaningful to her. Desks, dressers, old fashioned dolls, all from family or friends that were important. A blanket made by someone special, a picture she had when she was a girl. I can imagine that her whole house brings back nice warm memories.

Very little in my house has any sentimental value. I know my parents won't be upset if I get rid of the 30 year old couches we have from them in the loft, and I doubt my father in law would notice if we exchanged the converted water bed we got from him for a real bedroom set. Most everything is recent to me (meaning I might have gotten it used, but its new to me.) Even our pictures hardly go back more than 3 years.

But as I look around my office, I guess we're making our own memories. I like the pictures of my children all over our walls. I like the photos hanging in our office that I personally took of things on our land. I like the homemade Easter center piece Abby designed for our kitchen table. And I even like, for now, the wrapping bows and ribbons that I'm looking at on my desk in front of me. I hope I don't push them into a cookie cutter decorating style too soon so that the imaginative creativity lasts as long as possible - and maybe one day they'll create their own 'Pottery Barn' Store.